Prevalence of HBV, HCV and Syphilis among the People of Ekiti in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to know the prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis infections among the people of Ekiti, South-West, Nigeria. This study took place at the Haematology and Blood Transfusion Unit, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti. Patients and individuals who visited this unit of the hospital to screen for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis infections between January to November, 2014 were recruited for this study. Four ml of blood sample was collected from each subject into a plain bottle and was allowed to stand for 1hour for clotting and clot retraction to take place. Sera were separated into khan tubes labeled appropriately and were screened for the presence of antibodies to HBsAg, HCV and syphilis using One-Stage Rapid Test Kits ( DiaSpot Diagnostics) and all were later confirmed using enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) (Stat Fax Awareness, England). The results of this study showed the prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis infections to be 6.2%, 1.7% and 0.7% respectively with the highest prevalence of the three infections found within the age group 31-40 years followed by age group 21-30 years and males were more infected than the females. Age group 25-40 years is considered to be the most sexually active age group and the age group with the highest prevalence of these infections fall within the sexually active age group indicating that most of the infected people got infected through sexual intercourse with an infected person because the major mode of transmission of these infections is through sexual intercourse even though they can also be transmitted through other means.